Thursday, April 11, 2013

Isaac Newton's Mini Golf

You have
probably heard friends or co-workers say that a MBA is not worthwhile if you
want to start your own business.Why
bother spending 100K and two years of your life instead of actually doing
whatever it is you want to do?After
all, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Larry Page did not go to business school and
they did pretty well.Dean
Bruner says he frequently hears this claim from prospective students.

But why do
folks portray this as an either/or scenario?Should I go to business school or start my own business?What they should be asking is – How do I do
both?

That question
is probably best answered with a short vignette from two of my second year
classmates.Jim Thomas and Kevin
Bennett’s venture, Isaac Newton’s Mini Golf, was born in one Darden course and
developed throughout other courses, as part of the curriculum.

Isaac
Newton’s Mini Golf is an innovative product developed to teach children
foundational science concepts and reinforce math skills through the game of
mini golf.The idea was born in the second
year course, Starting New Ventures.Jim
and Kevin took the idea to another second year course, Developing New Products
and Services, to design and build a prototype for their product idea.They worked with a team of three other
students, learning to discover “user’s needs” and built a series of working
prototypes (Darden provides teams with money for materials).

From there,
Isaac Newton’s Mini Golf was further developed in other courses, such as
Digital Marketing and even Accounting (yes, Accounting).Many second year courses require a project or
paper that relates to a real business and there is no reason why an aspiring
entrepreneur cannot use his/her own venture.In fact, that is encouraged!

While
developing the idea in Darden courses, the venture received some seed capital
from Darden’s Batten Institute in the form of a “De-Risking” Competition.And most importantly, Jim and Kevin are able
to get help and advice from fellow students and faculty.

The founders
came to Darden with very different perceptions of entrepreneurship.Jim was already an experienced entrepreneur,
having co-founded a software company, and intended to return to a
start-up.Kevin came from the military
with no entrepreneurial experience and little desire for it until a first year
elective caused him to re-think what entrepreneurship really is.Both came to understand the value of starting
their own venture in business school and took advantage of Darden’s many
resources.At Darden, it is possible to
get a world class MBA and start your own business.

Jim and Kevin
both say this experience forced them to bring to bear everything they were learning
in the classroom: Strategy, Marketing, Operations, Finance, and yes, even
Accounting.For those interested in
entrepreneurship, Darden has some tremendous resources, these are just a few:

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About Me

I am a second year MBA student at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. This blog is all about my experiences as an MBA student at Darden and as a member of the Charlottesville community.